Genealogy Fair breeds enthusiasm for family past

March 29, 2006|LISA KOCHANOWSKI Tribune Correspondent

T-shirts, rubbing wax for tombstones, bumper stickers, key chains, pens on ropes and archival pens were just some of the many different things people could find at the Genealogy Fair 2006 at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library in downtown Mishawaka. "Many of the folks here are active genealogy and family history buffs, and it's fun for us," said Bill Minish, president of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society, which organized the event. This was the eighth fair the group has organized and the first year it was at the library. Minish said the group teamed up with the library because the library has such a wonderful Heritage Center that many members of the group use. Fifteen exhibitors came to the event, many of them local historical or genealogical societies. "We did this to further their enthusiasm and knowledge and to let them browse and buy books," said Minish of one of the goals of the program. Lori Smith, of Mishawaka, was introduced recently to family history when she found some old letters her great-grandfather wrote to her great-grandmother, and she is interested in learning more about her family history. "I thought it was really interesting to see all the things people use to learn about their family history," said Smith. "I think I might try and join one of the groups and learn more about the study of genealogy." Michelle Collier, of Osceola, got interested in genealogy and has started a business with her "tag along" product that can be used during the research process. "I took my Brownie troop to the Osceola Historical Museum, and a lot of my grandfather's stuff was there and I wanted to learn more, and that kind of snowballed," said Collier about her start into the field of genealogy. Six months ago, she started family research and decided she needed some small way to collect data without carrying around a bunch of notebooks. She came up with the idea of "tag alongs," which she created and was selling for the first time at the fair. "When you're sitting at the computer going through census material, it's nice to have the material you need right there for you to look at," said Collier. She created tags that list the name, date of birth, date of death, place of birth, place of death and other statistical information on them along with pictures of the people. Whether it was learning more about genealogy, finding out how to join a group or talking with fellow genealogists about their finds and techniques, it could all be found at the Genealogy Fair 2006. For more information about getting involved with the South Bend Area Genealogical Society, visit their Web site at www.rootsweb.com/~insbags. The group's next members meeting is April 24.